Game Fish and Parks says the new online permit-purchasing system they bought from a Florida company isn’t working all that well:
The state has paid at least $7.45 million to the Florida-based vendor that manages the system, according to the state’s financial transparency website OpenSD.
…In particular, [GF&P’s Keith] Fisk pointed out seven periods this year when the system couldn’t process transactions. He said the system went down in June on the last night deer hunters could purchase a license for a particular season. Fisk said fixing that is a top priority for 2024.
…In January 2021, the department signed a seven-year contract with Brandt Information Services of Tallahassee, Florida, to develop and run the Go Outdoors system. The contract can be terminated with a 90-day notice after three years of implementation. The data remains the property of the state, but Brandt has limited rights to it. The contract has an optional three-year renewal.
Payment from the state to Brandt is made based on itemized invoices, per transaction through the system. This ranges from $1 for an online camping reservation to $6 per call to a call center [Joshua Haiar, “State Says E-Commerce System for Hunting Licenses, Park Reservations Needs ‘A Lot of Improvements’,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2023.12.09].
If the state needs an excuse to exercise that termination clause, perhaps they will consider that Brandt IS founder John Thomas is a regular donor to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, Joe Biden, Val Demings, Raphael Warnock, and other Democratic candidates and causes. But Brandt co-founder Richard Wise has put his money behind Ron DeSantis, which suggests the firm is nicely bipartisan but could still give our Governor, who has endorsed another incompetent Florida resident for President, an excuse to punish Brandt for poor performance and peeving politicking.
Good grief. Even I could write and host and maintain a data-based Web app that would function at a high level (and run it out of my basement) for about 10% the cost the state is paying those 2 Floridians, and I haven’t been in that IT development business for 25 years. Should have stayed in that career, I guess. Oh well, let’s add this to the whole “Florida men” series of tales with the subclause “dupe an entire state”.
Mr. Schriever, when you build this web thing be sure to use the https with the S. Back in your day you probably didn’t know that. grudznick was taught to look for that when I click on the buying things by my granddaughter’s boyfriend who works with computers and the whole internet. The internet wasn’t as big back in your day.
So …we signed a 7.5 million dollar contract with a FLORIDA company and the system is a dud….and this is a SURPRISE. Why don’t we look a little closer to home and contract with people whose reputation is known in South Dakota and who are available to stand by and maintain their product. These people exist in South Dakota butGovernor Noem has a basic mistrust of South Dakotans and her staff are a bunch of Florida exiles.
So …we signed a 7.5 million dollar contract with a FLORIDA company and the system is a dud….and this is a SURPRISE. Why don’t we look a little closer to home and contract with people whose reputation is known in South Dakota and who are available to stand by and maintain their product. These people exist in South Dakota but Governor Noem has a basic mistrust of South Dakotans and her staff are a bunch of Florida exiles. Shop at Home.
Florida does mostly suck, Mr. Blundt. I believe a fellow here, Mr. Schriever, could build us a better product from in-state. I do not know if Mr. Schriever stepped up and committed to the government, or if he could pass their no-doubt rigorous and stringent bars of vetting. I am sure they have bars of vetting.
But Mr. Blundt is sure righter-than-right. Florida sucks, and not just because Mr. Trump is based there from his fancy pants place.
The GFP is slacking all over itself. Zebra mussels discovered in Lake Oahe last week. I think we are at twenty-something infested water bodies, and counting.
Our state is a pure concentrate boiled down as a result of following the republican super majority rubric for so long. Nothing but an impotent wannabe John Wayne. They point and laugh at it. -I mean us.
Time to get over that ridiculous yearning for an image we never were and never will be, and quite frankly, is a lame goal in the first place. Try Clint, or even better; Tubman or Rain In The Face. Anyone but the superficial John Wayne. Let’s move away from that brutish republicanism that clearly is incapable of rising to any occasion.
I presented my recommendation on how to “Save the Henry Brockhouse Taxidermy” in Sioux Falls, and it includes the following:
1) Creation of EXPLORE SIOUX FALLS as a Business Improvement District (non-profit organization)
2) Create Camping and Lodging Parks within the City of Sioux Falls, while creating a Natural Wildlife, History of Sioux Falls, and Nature theme, while providing excellent abilities to generate more revenues for the Parks and Recreation Department of Sioux Falls.
3) By creating a B.I.D – we have the ability to create a new Imposition Tax (or fee) applied to a specific activity(s) to raisse revenues to promote, market, and improve the district assets – Buildings, Infrastructure, and Services.
My Presentation may be seen by clicking the following google document link @
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQhiErgGXkZ370DOoSh7CAaynmKSHEH2s_Wkt3jXEiAlblKpIg2i7T5fc4-HXh_aT6X9V7-wXOO6nkE/pub?urp=gmail_link
Thank You,
Mike Zitterich
Why are we signing 7 year deals? That is absurd!
Tim, the longer contract means better negociated deal, everyone knows this. This is why in the business world, when you sign contracts for example with Cell Phone Companies, Internet Companies, you get a more favorable ‘rate’ where you commit to longer terms. So you sign a 3 year contract versus a 1 year contract, or the same when you sign a 3 year lease agreement with the landlord versus 6 month lease with your landlord. He gives you a better rate, than someone who only signs a short 6 month lease, or worse, month-to-month lease. Under a long term contract your governed by the contract terms, whereas in a month-to-month contract, the property owner can terminate the contract without notice, or at minimum, a 14 day notice.
The death of the Missouri River ecosystem in South Dakota began with the European invasion, was accelerated by the Homestake Mining Company and sealed with the construction of the mainstem dams. Today, the Corps has cancelled Spring Pulses on the Missouri River not because of low flows but because the silt is so poisonous it would kill the very species it says it’s trying to preserve.
Nearly a century of residue from Black Hills Mining District affects millions of cubic yards of riparian habitat all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Although the Oahe Dam was completed in 1962 sequestering most of the silt the soils of the Belle Fourche and Cheyenne Rivers are inculcated with arsenic at levels that have killed cattle.
After massive failures of the legislature and state agencies the Republican-controlled South Dakota Game, Fish and Plunder is throwing up its hands on zebra mussels.
Endangered pallid sturgeon, paddlefish, catfish and most other aquatic organisms cope with lethal levels of mercury throughout the South Dakota portion of the Missouri River so as those species are extirpated or even go extinct zebra mussels have colonized most of the system. Lewis and Clark Lake is at least thirty percent full of toxic sediment but that impoundment and Lake Sharpe can’t spend money fast enough to reverse the infestation of the imported bivalves in hydroelectric equipment and water courses.
Diving ducks like the Canvasback, Redhead, Bufflehead, Lesser Scaup and the Common Goldeneye feed on the invasive mussels but they’re part of over a hundred species at risk to the South Dakota Republican Party. To prop up the pheasant industry the state’s Republican governor put bounties on raccoons and skunks also known to feed on the prolific invaders.
grudz, FYI back in the day, one of my CLIENTS (one of the businesses that hired ME to help them) was one of the original 7 ISPs.
This was shortly after my consulting work in ’93-’94 to Microsoft contributed to Bill Gates’ decision NOT to go into competition with AOL and Compuserve with the Win95 feature MSN and focus instead on browser development. I really don’t think you have any idea who you are addressing here. Go back to your goat hole.
Mikey, In the tech world, the inverse of your contract logic has applied for decades. Things have always gotten better cheaper and faster exponentially,
So you probably know what I’m talking about when putting the “S” at the end of HTTP for the magic beans then, Mr. Schriever.
Mr. Zitterich, I think our friend Mr. Schiever, the tosser of TLA, decided to copy YOUR ALLCAPS to emphasize his knowledge. By the way, few goats live in holes, but I got his! Buwahahahaha.
7 year commitment is ridiculous. never heard of it before.
I have heard several complaints about the deer licensing online this year and 2 neighbors who didn’t get one because they are not computer savvy. Of course, they blame Biden for this.